Although I spent my high school days in the Netherlands, during university I wanted to live in my hometown, Okayama. So, I entered Okayama University after passing the entrance exam for returning expatriate students. There, I joined a lacrosse club and supported the team as a manager from early morning. As I spent a lot of time with my fellow members and got heavily involved in club activities, I have built good relationships with them, which also helped me actively get involved in other activities.
 Studying abroad was one of the challenges. I participated in several short-term study abroad programs. Okayama University offers a range of opportunities to study abroad and has a support system. Fortunately, my professors and fellow club members were supportive and understanding, and I was able to study abroad while balancing the activities of the lacrosse club and part-time jobs.
 In my third year, I participated in an external program to study in the U.S. Students from five countries, Japan, Russia, China, India, and Brazil, took part in the program. We attended university lectures and visited government agencies aiming to find solutions to environmental issues. At that time, I was studying how to address environmental issues from a technology perspective at the Faculty of Agriculture. This program was a great opportunity to look at the challenges from a policy perspective. By meeting with people who were addressing practical issues at government agencies, I learned that better technologies were of course necessary to resolve these issues, but even if better technologies become available, the issues cannot be resolved unless the technologies are widely used. As a result, I became interested in how to establish a healthier and more sustainable business model in order to spread technologies to wider populations.
 In my research project, I worked on improving the storability of fruits and vegetables. The research involved a wide variety of approaches, including analyzing the maturation mechanisms and verifying suitable distribution methods through actual storage and export examples. I chose to join this research group because I was interested in its underlying concept of “making agriculture a more profitable industry.” If we can deliver Okayama’s delicious peaches to more people further afield, it would be of great benefit to producers as well as consumers, and by creating a profitable cycle, agriculture would become a more attractive industry. I continue to value such a way of thinking in my current job.
 Since graduating from university, I have been engaged in launching new businesses and improving existing ones related to distribution at Mitsui & Co., Ltd. My role is to analyze and visualize various issues and risks in the business, extract the issues and then devise and implement solutions. Although it is difficult and there are still many things to learn, I would like to contribute to addressing social challenges and achieving sustainable growth, based on what I learned and sensed during my time at university.
 At university, I wanted to experience various things beyond my subject area and eagerly tried new things, and that enabled me to find the business area that I am currently working on. There are still many things to know, and I hope that you too will try out many new things, meet many people, and explore the world you do not know yet.

As of November 2020